Obituaries (May 31)

Sarah Belle Backus

Utica Saturday Globe, April 28, 1906

 

 

Sarah Belle Backus

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Sarah Belle Backus died at the home of her mother, Mrs. Emma L. Webb, on Fair street on Thursday morning of last week, aged 22.  She had been ill only 10 days.  Her death was due to peritonitis affecting her heart which had never been strong.  Miss Backus was born in Norwich and had spent all of her life here.  She was a member of the Calvary Baptist Church and of the W.C.T.U. and had many friends.  Besides her mother, she is survived by a brother, J. Lamott Backus, also a resident of Norwich.  Private funeral services were held on Saturday afternoon at 3:30, Rev. Ira W. Bingham officiating.  there were numerous floral offerings from friends, the Philathea class of the Calvary Baptist Church and from the W.C.T.U.  The bearers were all relatives, Charles Allen, Ezra Cook, George Webb and J. Lamott Backus.  Interment was made in Mount Hope Cemetery [Norwich, NY].

Mrs. Ray Woodmanse

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, January 13, 1883

WOODMANSE:  Many of the readers of the Telegraph have been anxiously waiting to read the obituary of the widow of Rev. Ray Woodmanse.  In the notice given in the paper last week there was a mistake.  She died at the house of her son, Daniel Woodmanse, in New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY], Nov. 27th, 1882.  I wish to give a little more than a passing notice of the life of this good woman.  Had she been wealthy, many would have been willing to have written of her good qualities and great display of burial; but her great wealth was on the other side of the river waiting for her reception.  She had been among us for nearly forty years. She and her husband were of the little band that worshipped in the new church at Holmesville [Chenango Co., NY] twenty years ago. I love to linger in thought upon the exhortations coming from their hearts;  They were Christians seven days in the week; they were warm friends of the poor; the weather was never so cold, the snow never so deep, but they could find the homes of the poor and destitute, the sick and dying, carrying with them some needed comfort, and best of all, kind and loving words and tender hearts to smooth the roughness of the way.  Many of us can remember their many deeds of kindness, without regard to riches or poverty.  She loved her children and their families dearly, and said to me a few days before she died:  "Every one is so kind to me, and I can do nothing to repay them.  Her work was all done, and she was waiting to be called home. Her last visit among the members of the church will always be remembered.  She had visited several weeks and was ready to go home, and when her son Daniel came for her she met  him at the door, and he put his arms around her tottering form and kissed her.  I could but think that Garfield was not the only man that could kiss his aged mother.  I would that all parents could be led so gently down the western horizon of life.

 

Rufus Baldwin
1825 - 1897

Died at Minneapolis, Minn., July 20th, Mr. Rufus Baldwin in the 75th year of his age.  He was a  native of Goshen, Conn., and ever held true to his early training, which was after the Puritan pattern.  The active portion of his life was chiefly spent in Chenango Co., N.Y., where in consequence of a temporary reverse in the mercantile business, he was led to seek "durable riches" in Jesus Christ, and was ever after a consistent and devoted Christian, and a zealous promoter of every good work.--several years since, having with his wife removed to Minneapolis to spend the remainder of his days with his only son, he became a member of the Congregational Church at that place, and labored to the end of life for its good, and with a soul also alive to the moral and religious interests of that new country.  His sufferings during his last sickness were very severe, but endured without a murmur.  From the first attack he felt that the disease would be fatal, but never expressed a desire to recover--Thus he passed away in a serene old age, leaving a fragrant memory as a husband, father, friend, neighbor and Christian--N.Y. Independent..

Walter A. Baldwin

1831 - 1865

In Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], July 22, 1865, Walter A. Baldwin, son of William Baldwin, Esq., aged 34.  The circumstances that surround this death seem to demand something more than a brief newspaper announcement.  After laying the foundation of a mercantile career in Guilford and towns adjacent, he removed to Augusta, Ga., in the year 1852, and was in a successful business when the rebellion first raised its Hydra head.  Though Union in sentiment, he was driven by popular clamor in common with thousands of others to give his unwilling aid to the "accursed thing," and he did so by hiring a substitute.  But this was not sufficient.  The rebel government, like the daughter of the horse leach, kept crying, give, give;  and he then as he supposed, purchased his exemption from personal service by the payment of a large sum of money.  But even this did not stall, for he was conscripted on the 2d of April, 1864, and served for some time in the field, but was captured by Gen. Sherman's forces at Fort McAllister, Dec. 1864; was then sent to Hilton Head, and from there to Point Lookout, Md., which he reach Feb'y 1, 1865.  He was then seized with a disease which preyed upon him until the 10th of June, when his father procured his discharge and brought him to Guilford to die in his native town, surrounded, aided and comforted, so far as human means could do it by kind and loving hearts, and cheerful and willing hands.  One little incident in his trip, shows upon how small a point--small to human vision--important events in our existence are made.  It has been planned for soldiers to escape on a certain night from picket duty and enter the Federal lines.  But while "the nine" were detailed and made good their escaped, as intended, he was compelled to remain in camp, merely because he was a northern man!  The circumstances thence resulting are that he was taken prisoner and contracted disease which in confinement which has terminated his life.  Genial and bland in his deportment, honest and fair in his dealings and dutiful and affectionate as a son and brother, he has left many weeping hearts to mourn his premature departure, and that he should die there a victim to the rapacity and despotism of an accursed rebellion.

The Blue and the Gray

A local correspondent writes: "During house cleaning time, old things half forgotten are resurrected.  At the residence of George H. Baldwin yesterday there hung from the clothes line in the back yard Mr. Baldwin's old army full dress coat, trousers, blouse, fatigue uniform and the equipment all out to be aired, and strange to relate on the same line the uniform his brother, Walter, wore while in the rebel service.  When the war broke out Walter was doing business in Augusta, Ga., and at that time paid $1,200 for a substitute, but was afterward conscripted in 1864.  Now the blue and the gray hang together, as if nothing had happened."

Mabel (Parsons) Davis

Died January 12, 1900, AE 76 years

The death of Mrs. Mabel Davis occurred at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Melvin Herrick, at Union Valley [West Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY] last Friday, January 12th, at the age of 76 years.  Mrs. Davis had been an invalid for several years, having suffered a stroke of apoplexy from the effects of which she never fully recovered.  On Christmas day she was taken ill with pneumonia from which she was apparently recovering when, about a week later, she was again stricken with apoplexy which resulted in her death.  The deceased was the daughter of Augustus and Lydia Parsons and was born in the town of Guilford [Chenango Co., NY].  Her husband, the late Abram Davis, died about fourteen years ago upon the old homestead in the edge of the town of Oxford which is now occupied by the son, Will Davis.  Mr. and Mrs. Davis spent their whole lives in this vicinity and had the respect and esteem of the whole community.  They were faithful and devoted members of the M.E. church at Union Valley.  To them were born nine children, eight of whom are now living, one daughter, Ida, having died about ten years ago.  Since the death of her husband Mrs. Davis had divided her time between the homes of her children, her home being with her daughter, Mrs. Herrick, where she died and where the funeral services were conducted by her pastor, Rev. C.H. Sackett, at one o'clock Monday afternoon.  The burial was in the Union Valley cemetery [West Bainbridge].  She is survived by her children, Marcus Davis, Ebb. Davis, Frank Davis, Menzo Davis, Will Davis, Mrs. Melvin Herrick, Mrs. Andrus Doolittle and Mrs. Frank Lyon, besides four sisters, Mrs. Mary Miles of Bainbridge, Mrs. Alice Johnson, Mrs. Tabitha Johnson and Mrs. Eliza Davis who live in Montana.

Our mother's gone, how sad it seems,

We ne'er can see her more.

Until we too shall pass from earth,

And reach the golden shore.

The summons came for her to go.

She could no longer stay;

And we a long farewell must give,

For she has passed away.